My thoughts keep drifting back this morning to the magnificent lunch that we had with cousins from Cheltenham at which my son and daughter-in-law discovered that they had a shared interest in certain classic cars. They had both in their respective youth had an exemplar of the Morris Minor which they both knew fairly intimately as they were used to servicing the cars themselves and, in the case of my cousin, practically stripping the car to zero and rebuilding it. I was not party to all of the technical details of their conversation but I am pretty sure that my cousin had performed an engine swap on his Morris Minor making it into at least a twin carb model. My son and daughter-in-law used to belong to a Morris Minor owners’ club and used to make regular trips to Bath, I believe. After we repaired to our house, I gave my cousins some raspberries, ice-cream and coffee and then they made it safely home with precious few diversions for roadworks. But I received a text from my cousin who had left her much loved cardigan behind in our dining room so I have parcelled it up and will pop it into the post for her when I off on an errand on the High Street later on in the morning.

Various parts of the media are rejoicing in a local judgement after a Conservative-run council in Essex won an interim High Court injunction to stop migrants being accommodated at a local hotel. Several other councils are now exploring the possibility of exploring similar options because it appears that whenever migrants are accommodated in a local hotel, a rent-a-crowd or local massive opposition manifests itself. Some of this is undoubtedly sincerely felt that social media and the language used to report the evens is anything but balanced. For example, it was reported that a young Afghan male had been found guilty of a serious sexual assault but the facts of the case was that the young boy had attempted to plant a kiss on the cheek of a 14-year-old girl. Whilst this was undoubtedly an unwanted advance, there must be a world of difference between an attempted kiss (I am tempted to say which one of us has not attempted to kiss a 14-year-old girl) and a more serious offence such as a rape. But a certain amount of phobia is being whipped up and directed against migrants in what can only be described as classic cases of scapegoating. The government has a real problem in many of these legal challenges succeed because the alternatives to hotels may be even worse. One is to house migrants in cheap flats in HMO’s (Houses in Multiple Occupation) but this might intensity the severity of local housing shortages as well as increasing the possibility of social discord. Another possibility is to house migrants in ex-military accommodation such as army barracks but detention of migrants without a trial is probably not legal and is not the simple solution that it might, at first sight, appear. The only real solution is to massively increase the rate at which migrants’ claim for asylum are processed but this will require many more staff for which the Home Office does not have the budget (and which, no doubt, the Treasury would not be willing to fund) In the meanwhile, community tensions which are undoubtedly real are being fanned by a variety of right wing groups from the Conservatives rightwards and the local right wing fringe groups, typically clothes in a Union Jack or the flag of St George always seem to be prominent with slogans that emphasise ‘keeping our communities safe’ and ‘protecting our children’ In the meanwhile, even Worcestershire County Council which has a very ambivalent attitude towards the recent spate of flag affixing activities as now declared that painting a red cross on the white background typically used in mini-roundabouts is an act of vandalism and perpetrators, if found and caught in the act are to be prosecuted. I personally doubt if anyone will actually be caught and prosecuted because the act of painting a red cross could be done within a minute or so and before the police have a chance to arrive on the scene.

I got my shopping sone in plenty of time because once I had hot it home and everything unpacked, I needed to go into town for a couple of things. First, I called in at the Post Office and got my cousin’s cardigan despatched back to her – she had left it behind yesterday and as it was one of her favourite pieces of clothing, I had no hesitation in posting it back to her. Then as I had plenty of time, I called in and bought some cosmetics and finally turned up at the branch of my bank in order to review my account. She was a very helpful young manager and by the time we had reviewed various options, it seems that the present product that I have is the best of the three that they have on offer. The manager displayed the comparisons on the screen side by side and I think we were both a little surprised that my current selection actually gives me more interest than the two alternatives. So we decided to leave things as they are but I may go back in January by which time I am hopeful that I might be able to use savings to clear off my mortgage and then we can review things all over again. After I returned home, I cooked myself a fairly conventional ‘meat and two veg’ type lunch which I do not seem to have had for a few days now.

There was an interesting case study reported by Sky News. They report that the non-British born population of Bournemouth – a town that relies heavily upon migrant labour to staff its tourist industry – has risen by about 50% in the decade before the last census i.e. 2011-2021. But whereas just before Brexit, much of the town’s hospitality industry was staffed by Eastern Europeans, they have largely returned home only to be replaced my migrants from Asia. So Bournemouth now presents a post-Brexit face to the world which is less white European and is now much more cosmopolitan. I remember well that the last week or so of the Brexit campaign was dominated by the issue of immigration rather than any European issues which should have been the whole focus of the debate. The irony of all of this is those who voted Brexit were probably voting to attempt to recreate an idealised 1950’s style of non-cosmopolitan UK but have now got the exact reverse. Of course, if a referendum were to be held today, the Brexit result would undoubtedly be reversed but a move like this is not on the political agenda in the short term.

The night before yesterday, I received a text message with the not very welcome news that one of Meg’s cousins who we due to meet for lunch yesterday was now not able to make the lunch date as he had just had experienced a recent health scare which involved a night in hospital so evidently he needed to recover safely at home. Whilst I was disappointed to receive the news, I could evidently understand and perhaps another occasion will arise in which I can make the journey to Derby (or to the other cousin in Cheltenham) for a family meal. I reported the other day that when I was out in the car going to a meeting of U3A (University of the Third Age), I counted a rash of St George’s flags, seventeen at least, which were affixed in profusion to the lamp posts in the town centre. I now see from the local news that this is part of a wider cultural movement. Consulting the web I discovered the following. A recent movement has seen the St. George’s flag displayed prominently in Worcestershire, particularly in Bromsgrove and Worcester, with flags appearing on lamp posts and even painted on roundabouts. This has sparked both support and controversy, with some residents organising the displays as a show of patriotism and others raising concerns about safety and potential division. Worcestershire County Council has stated that while they recognise the desire to express views, they are also responsible for maintaining infrastructure and may remove unauthorised attachments to council-owned structures. But if I were a social geographer and were to map the distribution of these flags, there would be a very high coincidence between the flag erecting activities and the the poor, white working class areas in which the Reform movement is now sweeping the board. Here in Bromsgrove and also in Worcestershire, Reform made sweeping gains in the last local elections, Reform won an unprecedented number of seats on the county council but fell two short of an overall majority. The party enjoyed election success across Worcestershire, winning 27 of the 57 seats up for grabs and were only two short of an absolute majority. The reaction of the local authorities to whose lamp posts these flags are affixed is interesting. In Labour controlled Birmingham, the local authority has not hesitated to remove them on ‘health and safety’ grounds. But here, locally and elsewhere in Worcestershire, the reaction has been much more muted and even ambiguous. I have seen video clips on the local news of gangs of enthusiasts armed with aluminium ladders going from lamp post to lamp post attaching the flags with those black cable ties which makes the task of erection both easy and rapid. From what I can gather, the respondents on social media are enthusiastically in favour of this social movement with a common sentiment being expressed that ‘we are taking our country back’ and the movement was trying to spread the celebration of ‘being English’ by their activities. The interesting thing about all of this is that in cultural terms, the English are not a great flag waving nation quite unlike the Americans. I read that in the United States, while many public schools schedule a daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, it is not mandatory for all students to participate, The Supreme Court has ruled that students cannot be compelled to recite the Pledge, and many states offer exemptions or allow students to opt out with parental permission. Here in England, a great deal of flag waving is manifest upon sporting occasions and national festivals involving royalty but is it is not (yet) part pf the warp and weft of every day special life. I must admit to feelings of great unease whenever I see demonstrations of excessive nationalism from whatever quarter although I am somewhat more tolerant when it comes to expressions pf national identity for those in Scotland and Wales who have been subject to English hegemony for centuries. One little thing that stimulates my distaste for this cultural phenomenon is that the flag makers are now writing the words ‘England’ across the middle of the flag as though uninformed members of the public needed educating about the significance of St George’s flag.  I just have the sinking feeling that once the genie of excessive nationalism is let out of the bottle, as it were, it is very difficult to contain it and community tensions may well eventually be exacerbated by this cultural movement.

There is a fact of recent history which ought to be receiving a great deal of prominence but unfortunately this is not the case. Ukraine did give up its inherited Soviet nuclear weapons in exchange for security assurances from the US, UK, and Russia, formalised in the Budapest Memorandum of 1994. This agreement included pledges to respect Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and existing borders, as well as to refrain from the threat or use of force against Ukraine. This security assurance has evidently been completed ignored by Russia which could hardly be said to be respecting Ukraine’s independence when they invaded and waged war against the Ukraine in 2014 with the seizure of Crimea only some twenty years later. In a similar vein, both the USA and the UK did not respect Ukrainian boundaries and all of this demonstrates that words might be utterly meaningless unless backed up with the means of enforcing the security protocols. So, in the present conflict with Putin, given that he has broke assurances before, how can the Ukraine be assured that history will not repeat itself a few years down the line?  

In the morning, I walked down to Waitrose and bought some cake, raspberries and coffee to offer our guests after the meal we were to have in the middle of the day. So our two cousins plus myself, son and daughter-in-law all had a magnificent meal and, despite the fact that the restaurant was so fully booked, were served with some delicious food with serves to sustain the good reputation of the gastro-pub in the area. Then my son and daughter-in-law had to shoot off but my cousins came round and we enjoyed some raspberries, ice-cream and coffee before they,too, had to depart. I intimated to them that I might have plans to have a brief holiday in Spain but the bookings and some final arrangements have yet to be made.

There seems to be something approaching a real breakthrough in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The Ukrainian leader, Zelenskyy was joined by a large contingent of European leaders who had turned up at the White House to show support for the Ukraine. The Russians have long maintained that one of their ‘red’ lines was that Ukraine should not be allowed to join Nato and in this way ‘threaten’ Russia. But under the impact of the European leaders, Trump has agreed that the USA will assist in making sure that there are guarantees  of support, similar to Nato but actually outside of it, that will ensure that if the Ukraine were to be invaded or threatened again, other countries including the European countries and the USA would lend their support to prevent this happening. One of the fears of Ukraine and one reason why they would hate to lose Donest to the Russians is that their last defensive line of cities would be gone and there would be nothing to prevent a future Russian invasion. The latest development is to be a tripartite meeting between Zelenskyy, Putin and Trump in a week or so’s time when he final details of a peace deal could be thrashed out. The meeting went much better for Zelenskyy this time around in sharp contrast to the ‘mugging’ that he received at the hands of Vance, the American vice-president, last February. Zelenskyy himself has learnt the art of flattery which is so important for the American president whilst he himself was flattered that so many European political leaders turned up at such incredibly short notice to the White House meeting. In practice, the presence of so many European political leaders in a ‘coalition of the willing’ was a strong signal to Trump that the security of Europe was at stake and guarantees had to be put in place that Putin be curbed in his desire to recreate a greater Russia starting with Russia and perhaps ending with other Baltic states that had formerly been part of the USSR. It is said of Trump that he always agrees with the last set of people surrounding him and one must fear that once the European leaders have departed, he surrounds himself with his coterie that secretly admires the ‘string man’ that Putin is portrayed to be.  A popular expression is that ‘the devil is in the detail’ and there are a lot of details to be worked through but the European leaders have now get Trump on camera as pledging support or at least security guarantees for Ukraine. I very much doubt that this would be ‘boots on the ground’ but the Americans can offer a lot of logistical support in air defence systems, allowing the sale of up-to-date weapons to the Ukrainians, satellite surveillance and the like. To turn our attention to other matters, it now looks as wild fires are sweeping Galicia in north west Spain and some 2000 troops have been drafted in to assist the normal firefighters. Some towns that Meg and I knew and have visited are under threat and part of the famous ‘Camino de Santiago’ pilgrimage route has had to be closed. Only a good steady downpour of rain will assist in the long term but none of this appears to be on the horizon and, we too, good do with some good torrential thunderstorms to replenish our depleted water supplies.

My son popped around after his swim this morning and we breakfasted together. I gave him the file containing the Enduring Power of Attorney documents for he and his wife to sign after which they can be despatched to the Office of the Public Guardian) which happens to be here in Birmingham) We also made some final arrangements that we are going to have tomorrow when two lots of Meg’s cousins are meeting with my son, daughter-in-law and myself in a local gastropub after which I envisage that we shall pop back to our house for cakes and coffee, After that, a fairly conventional Tuesday ensued as I collected my newspaper and then made my way to have a coffee and a chat with a set of friends where we meet in Wetherspoons. When this little party broke up, I made my way to the back of the pub where I chat with another frind that I tend to see quite regularly on Tuesdays and Saturdays. On my way home, I bumped into couple of acquaintances that I know live down the Kidderminster Road and received a hug from the wife after she had learnt from her husband of Meg’s death (this sequence of events is quite common, actually). Then it was a case of attending my Pilates class and as last week I had been teased by my classmates for not turning up in shorts, I threw discretion to the wind and turned up in my shorts today. I displayed my operation scar (sustained after being run over by a car over fifty years ago now) and my not very knobbly knees were much appreciated. I only mention this because one of my fellow class members always turns up in shorts as does our instructor so we had our normal jolly time whilst doing our exercises. Next weekend is the Bank Holiday weekend so I have put a reminder on the planning board that there is no Pilates class next week.

Often at this time of day in the late afternoon, I contemplate having a quiet read although the other day I was tempted to do a ‘fiendish’ level Sudoku which I managed to complete fairly easily. One book I have pulled off my bookshelves is a Michael Moseley book detailing the techniques of ‘intermittent fasting’ or at least a 16:8 approach (all food consumed within an 8 hour ‘window’ and fasting for the other sixteen) This approach is not entirely nw to me and I did try it or at least a variant of it where I tried to have my last on a Sunday evening and hardly eating again until Tuesday morning (the theory being your gut has a chance to rest and your blood to purify itself) I think I may re-read the book slowly and then work out whether I feel I the right frame of mind to start an experiment. In these quiet periods, I generally have ‘ClassicFM‘ on in the background and it sometimes occurs that I can work out the identity of the piece being played after hearing only a few opening notes. But I have been listening to ClassicFM since its inception which I think was about thirty-two years ago now on 1992.

The evening before yesterday was a pleasant surprise because one of the young Asian carers who used to care for Meg during her life came around with his partner and as they had just set up house together, we had quite a lot to chat about. My friends brought around a bottle of wine and had also a pasta meal which I know is a speciality. I took the bottle of wine they gave me and popped it in the fridge whilst we enjoyed a rosé which I would not normally drink but I recognised the vineyard from which it came and their reds are astoundingly good so I bought this on spec. I gave my friend only minute portions of wine topped up with tonic water because I did not him to fall foul of the drinking and driving legislation and my friends stayed  all of the evening for nearly three hours so I am pretty sure he was within the legal limit at the end of the evening. Before my friends arrived, I spotted my neighbour and his wife engaging in one of their usual pursuits which is chasing their newly acquired little dog over the grassed area in front of our houses. The  dog slips out of the house and loves running round and round evading all attempts at capture and this behaviour is driving my neighbours to despair.   Eventually, after about 20 minutes or so the dog will respond to the lure of a bag of crisps but in the meantime has led us all a merry dance in the meantime. If I spot my neighbour I always go out to lend a hand but although I have come within touching distance of the puppy on occasion, I have never managed to catch it either. As it happens, I was more than happy to bump in to our neighbours because I would like him to witness some legal documents (Enduring Powers of Attorney) which my son and I had prepared the other day. Our neighbour had very kindly done exactly the same when we went through a similar procedure for Meg and now we are going through a similar procedure for myself as part of the tidying up of our affairs after Meg’s passing.

The most extraordinary political events are due to play out in the White House later on in the day. It really does look as though Putin and Trump between them are going to put the Ukrainian leader Zelenskyy under the most enormous pressure to trade lands for peace with the Russians including some lands that the Russians would dearly like as part of the Donetsk region but which they have not actually, as yet, captured. This is completely unacceptable to the Ukrainians but it is starting to look as though Trump completely endorses the view of Putin and is thus aiding and abetting the illegal seizure of territories by force. A whole succession of European leaders including the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Hungary are going to turn up ‘en masse’ to give support to Zelenskyy and to try to avoid an American style mugging as happened the last tome Zelenskyy was in the Oval office. Whether these leaders will be allowed to accompany the Ukrainian leader is unclear as I write. As Trump is following none of the normal diplomatic rules, the European leaders are themselves being forced into unconventional practices in order to ensure that a piece of European soil is not seized by the Russians. What is so extraordinary to ascertain is exactly why Trump is so keen to uphold the Russian view of the conflict, even telling the Ukrainians that they ‘started’ the war but it is very difficult to understand the mindset of Trump and his coterie. The Russians seem to have got everything they wanted by resorting to flattery of Trump and refusing to concede a single point.  Even the word ‘ceasefire’ did not find its way into the press briefing after the now infamous Alaska summit. Alaska has been part of the U.S. since it was purchased from Russia in 1867, following the Crimean War. Alaska was granted statehood in 1959. But before the meeting, Trump seemed very confused and told reporters that if things went wrong in the summit, he would abandon it and return to the United States. As the American president is surrounded by so many sycophants, no one dares to correct him when he utters inanities of this kind.

Later I the morning, I went down by car and collected my newspaper before making my way to a local garden centre where I had been informed that a local University of the Third Age (U3A) was due to meet for a coffee and a chat. Eventually, I made contact with the group and was pleasantly surprised that I already know two or three of the chat group already as I had seen them before, sitting round the ‘chatty’ table in our local Methodist centre. So it was easier to break the ice, as it were, and we each bought our own coffee and chatted about this and that for the best part of two hours. There is going to be a big group meeting to be held in early September when no doubt I will be asked to formally join the group and to pay a nominal subscription fee but this opens up the possibility of other U3A activities in which to engage, should I feel so inclined. There was one more new member of the group in addition to myself and at least I was not the only male in the group as there was another man attending the group with his wife. I had to make a circuitous route to get home as there were road closures in the vicinity of the building work that seems to be going in any every direction around me. When I got home, I cooked myself a lunch of one half of the pasta I had been donate by one of Meg’s carers the night before which I ate with a good portion of broccoli. Then I popped around to see my next-door neighbour principally to secure his signature on our Lasting Power of Attorney documents but stayed for at least an hour and a half whilst we talked over matters both local and political. On my way home, I was absolutely amazed to see that there was a proliferation of the Flags of St George which is now widely regarded as the English national flag. I counted at least seventeen instances of this flag which seems to be flying from every other lamppost down the High Street. I suspect that this is a part of some vigorous local compaigining no doubt given succour by the success of the Reform party in recent elections but this overt nationalism evoked some rather unpleasant feelings for me (as does any over the top display of nationalism) The web indicates that today, this flag is used as the national flag of England and is flown at sporting events to represent the country and the flag design features a white background with a red cross. But there are no actual sporting events at the moment which would justify such a massive display of these flags. As you might expect, the uninformed social media pages of full of glee in what can only be interpreted as a counter-cultural backlash and one comment I read was to the effect that if you were offended by this very display of flags, go off and live in another country. What I have get to find out is whether this massive display of flags everywhere is permitted, or at least tolerated by the local authority but once the genie of unbridled nationalism is let out of the bottle, it may be very difficult to contain it again.

Sundays can be a problematic day as so many people are naturally at home with their families and this Sunday, two of my good friends who I might expect to see on a Sunday morning are away on holiday. But I know that a young Asian carer who used to look after Meg will be calling around with his partner (with whom he is busy setting up house) are coming round this evening with a bottle of wine and that is something to which to look forward. Depending on my text messages reveal I may be seeing another friend in the course of the day. A day or so ago, I experienced a real treat in the Promenade concerts broadcast each year throughout the summer usually from the Royal Albert Hall. Now the world’s finest exponent of the Indian instrument, the sitar was Ravi Shankar who Meg and and I nearly had to chance to see in Manchester in 1966 but a think a bout of ‘flu’ intervened to prevent it. But the tradition has been carried on with his daughter, Anoushka Shankar, and she has made her life’s work bridging the musical traditions of East and West with incredibly skilful compositions. She had a non-stop performance for an hour and a half a couple of days ago at the Proms and received the most rapturous applause from a highly appreciative audience. For my part, I well enjoyed her music as well which is both interesting and innovative.

The details of the Trump-Putin summit are starting to unfold and the omens are not good for the Ukraine. It looks as though Putin ran rings around Trump which was widely predicted and that the two leaders may have an accord to make Ukraine exchange hard-fought lands for peace, thus rewarding the original Russian aggression. There is to be another visit of Zelenskyy to the White House and he cannot forget the ‘mugging’ that he received on his last visit there. The Russian media are absolutely jubilant as they see their leader brought in from the cold, treated as an equal to the USA the world’s greatest military power and with all of the trappings of a state visit with red carpets galore, a military flypast and a ride in the presidential armoured Cadillac, popularly known as ‘The Beast’ It is no surprise that Putin is seen smiling extensively and it looks as though he has had to make no concessions at all. The word ‘ceasefire’ is not mentioned at all and it now looks as though Trump will be ‘de facto’ endorsing the Russian leaders claim over several areas of Ukraine and that the two world leaders will be pushing this upon Zelenskyy. Meanwhile, European leaders are looking on powerless with a kind of fascinated horror and all eyes, for the moment, are focused upon the Zelenskyy White House visit on Monday. I saw a newspaper headline from Boris Johnson that this summit was the most vomit-inducing meeting in history and I suspect that this view is shared privately amongst some of the American military as well as European leaders.

After I had breakfasted, I sauntered down the hill on quite a pleasant summer morning to collect my Sunday newspaper from Waitrose and whilst there, I availed myself of their free cup of coffee. Whilst I was drinking this, I was approached by a member of the church committee to whom I had written earlier on the week concerning any celebrations on the occasion of John Henry Newman being bestowed the honour of a Doctor of the Catholic church. I suspect that nothing much that much is going to happen because our existing priest has about two weeks left to run of his tenure and the new and younger priest takes over on 1st September so we are rather in an ‘interregnum’ period at the moment. On the benches outside I had a chat with a couple who were ‘friends of friends’ – in her younger days, the wife had acted as a baby sitter for some of our former neighbours (both, sadly now deceased) and also used to be a colleague of some of our other friends down the road. I took delight in telling them the story that they did not know about the first time we met our new neighbour nearly eighteen years ago now. He had a lot of connections with the BBC in Birmingham and with a background in amateur dramatics was sometimes called upon to play ‘bit’ parts in a local BBC production. But when we first met him, his nose had been rather put  out-of-joint because having just returned from holiday in Spain and with a nice ruddy complexion, he had auditioned the play the part of a corpse. But he had failed the audition because the producer informed him that he looked a bit too healthy to play the part of a corpse. I made my way into the park which is always somewhat of a bitter-sweet experience for me as I retrace the route which Meg and I used to walk and latterly I pushed her in her wheelchair. If I had a dog or a three year old child, I would have been completely at home in the park because they were both present in abundance, I chatted briefly with one acquaintance and then returned home where I prepared a conventional ‘beef and two veg’ meal, the beef having been cooked in the slow cooker since first thing this morning. After cooking, I always divide the joint into two and one half is immediately put in the freezer (after cooling) whilst the other will give me meals throughout the week. In the late afternoon, I received a text reminding me that one of Meg’s young Asian carers and his partner were due to call around with a bottle of wine so no doubt we can have a good chat talking, no doubt, about colleagues both old and new as there is such a rapid turnover in the care industry. The young man in question came to Meg’s funeral with some colleagues and I requested that the whole of the funeral party give them a special round of applause (which was thoroughly deserved) for the magnificent way that they had cared for Meg in her final months and days. It is still heartwarming to recall the magnificent send-off that Meg had on her funeral day and not unpleasant to remember.

Yesterday,it dawned as one of those grey and dreary looking days and it is a little hard to know how the weather is going to develop – but certainly cooler than the last few days. The evening before I had engaged in one of my usual heart-warming conversations on the phone with one of my University of Winchester friends and we are often in touch for a heart-to-heart when the occasion demands. The news was dominated as you might expect by the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska but as they are some six hours behind us then we are all waiting for the news to unfold. One thing that I did notice was that Trump was finding it very difficult to walk in a straight line down the red carpet that had been laid down in the tarmac and one stage zigzagged over it almost walking off it. Wondering whether I had been hypercritical, I did a quick Google search and, indeed, the social media and particularly ‘X’, are full of rumours about the health of the 79 year old president and are speculating whether his strange perambulation down the red carpet is indeed an indication of a much more serious medical problem. There are also video clips around on the internet showing Trump (like Biden before him) stumbling on the steps of the presidential aircraft, Air Force 1, so this one may run and run. It is a little too early to tell how the result of the Trump-Putin talks will pan out but many commentators are of the view that Putin being invited onto American soil and with no sanctions applied to him has already been brought in from social isolation and exclusion so this must make him a winner already. Looking ahead to the week that stretches out in front of us, there is going to be a big ‘family’ meal with some of Meg’s cousins at a nearby restaurant next Wednesday so this is something to which I can look forward.

Not many people realise that in our national efforts to curb carbon emissions, the fuel that we put in to our cars is not 100% petrol but up to 5% ethanol is used to bulk up the fuel. The UK’s largest bioethanol plant is set for closure with the loss of 160 jobs after the government confirmed it would not offer a bailout deal to the facility in Lincolnshire. This is quite a serious blow to the country and the company itself is blaming the imposition of American tariffs as the reasons for its failure. When large and important companies like this fail, and we can put Thames Water into the same category, there is a temptation that the government should step in and nationalise the asset in the public interest.  But we are living in an era when our government in particular does not have the resources to take over a failing national asset and the public at large would not be best pleased if public funds are diverted from, say the NHS, in order to prop up a failing privately owned asset. Governments can do a certain amount of back door support in the form of loans and special deals but these are often not sufficient. If there were an easy answer to this problem, then the government might already have grasped it. Perhaps there is a case here for a small levy on everyone’s petrol duty to provide the funds to keep the bioethanol plant functioning but this only adds a further twist to inflation which is already above guidelines. Incidentally, my son and I are watching the inflation rate that will may well peak in September with a great deal of interest.  This is because all of our pensions, including Teachers Pensions in our case, are uprated each Spring by the September inflation rate the year before so we both have a vested interest in this rising as high as 4%. The September inflation rate is published in mid to late October and my son has already got this date marked into his planning calendar.

In the morning, things did not tuurn out as I would have predicted. After breakfast, I was on my way down the hill when I bumped into my Italian friend and, as we have met had a good chat for ages, we stopped and spent some 20-30 minutes discussing how we were both going to organise our lives in the months ahead. For my Italian friend, the future is less certain as she has her house on the market and when she has got it sold, she is going to make a new life for herself somewhat  nearer to her daughter who I think lives in Gloucestershire. I can understand my frieds’s motivations in all of this but to abrogate a life time of over 60 years of contacts and then to try to recreate new friendships is a tall order. Having lived here for nearly 18 years, I am happy to reap some of the rewards of the ‘investment’ I have made in the local community. By the time we concluded our conversation, I judged that my Saturday friends would have given me up so I went down to Waitrose, made one or two purchases and treated myself to a coffee before striking for home. Just before I left the huse, I received a brown envelope from the Inland Revenue and normally these fill mne with a certain degree of foreboding but not on this occasion as it contained a cheque refunding some tax paid by Meg. The cheque covered most of the price of the three-day stay in a hotel in Harrogate and so was very timely.  So, I went down into townn by car to visit the bank and there was nobody else around when I was there so I sought the help of the young assistant who was manning the counter. First I had my withdrawal limit increased substantially which is going to be very helpful as it means in future that I can withdraw 2-3 weeks normal ‘living money’ at a time (I am one of the few supermarket customers who actually pays for their weekly shopping in cash) I also made an appointment to see a manager on Thursday next because the assistant thought that I was eligible for another current banking account that regularly pays a type of bonus each month into your account depending upon the nature and the amounts of direct debits in operation in the account. This is something I have been meaning to sort out for a long time now so I am delighted that the opportunity has arisen. I then made one or two small purchases in charity shops but also bought myself a simple no-nonsense little purse in which can store £2 coins when I happen to receive them in my change. Then I returned home and made myself a quiche and salad lunch before I contemplate washing the very dirty car in the afternoon.

Today is going to be quite a busy day what with one thing or another and perhaps for this reason, I could have slept a bit better than I actually did as I was contemplating the day ahead. First thing in the morning, our domestic help is due to call around which is always a great opportunity for us to swap news. Normally, she comes to us much earlier in the week but her domestic circumstances are such that she had to delay her visit to us until today. Now that the day has dawned, the whole of the world’s media are focused upon the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska to discuss the Ukraine conflict. The question on the lips of the world’s journalists is whether Trump will be outmanoeuvred or will he surprise us all? The omens are not good, not least because at one point in the last few days Trump announced that he was going to visit Russia (not realising that Alaska is actually part of the USA) and, of course, none of his entourage corrected him. Putin is an ex-KGB agent as well as a judo player and is well aware that one has to play upon the weaknesses of one’s opponent. In the case of Donald Trump, the question must be where to start. Putin may well start with a good dose of flattery and then offer the most minimal of concessions to show that he is willing to negotiate whilst clinging to his demand that Ukraine surrenders the whole of the Donbas region. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said on Tuesday evening that Mr Putin wants the rest of Donetsk – and in effect the entire eastern Donbas region – as part of a ceasefire plan. But the Ukrainian leader said Kyiv would reject the proposal and explained that such a move would deprive them of defensive lines and open the way for Moscow to conduct further offensives. Russia currently occupies around 19% of Ukraine, including Crimea and the parts of the Donbas region it seized prior to the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Apart from the evident desire not to lose territory, Ukraine feels that to cede the Donbas not only rewards aggression but provides a springboard for future invasions. A ceasefire sounds as though it is an easy thing to achieve but in practice, I suspect that the detail is devilishly complex. Presumably a ceasefire means that all troop movements have to cease as well but Russia feels that he has been making good progress on the ground and will be in no mood to compromise. Trump himself has expressed the view that there is a 25% chance that no progress will be made and normally meetings such as this are preceded by some detailed military planning but it is doubtful that this has taken place on this occasion. My best guess is that Putin will offer some vague reassurances that might make for a good soundbite but in the last analysis, words are cheap and might not result in any practical reactions on the ground, In the meanwhile, the Russians will have their attack lines prepared, declaring that is was the Ukrainian president that was standing in the way of a peace deal as Ukraine will not abandon land that I presently not occupied by Russia in the Donbas region. Of course to Russia, this is all part of the whole ‘Mother Russia’ region and the Russians believe that the whole of the Ukraine is rightfully theirs. Although it is another conflict, this puts me in mind of an interview that I saw recently of an extremely right wing ex-American settler on the West Bank who, when challenged about the fact the fact that Palestinian farmers were being chased off their own land by settlers given arms by the Israeli military explained that they were only reclaiming the ancient biblical lands of Judea and Samaria given to the Jewish people by God and illegally occupied by the Palestinian people. In the face of attitudes such as this in both the Ukraine and on the West Bank, it is a case of ‘might being right’ and I suppose is just an extension of what the American settlers did when they captured lands belong to the native Americans in the expansion of the American state.

In the morning, I had promised to take my Droitwich frend to a clinic in Solihull where she was going to have a procedure performed upon her shoulder. I relied upon the SatNav to get me to the little village outside Droitwich where my friend lives but it was one of these addresses sometimes found in little villages where there is a house name but no number as such. However, I had been given a tip what to look out for and my friend had told me the colour of the cars for which to look out and so fortunately, I got to my destination without getting lost but I think a certain amount of fortune was on my side. My friend and I chatted a lot in the car on the way to the hospital but although she was due there at 12.30 she texted me later to say that she would not be seen until 4.00pm in the afternoon. Fortunately, I had taken along a book for my friend to borrow and to read called ‘Watching the English’ and it looks at the English people through an anthropologists’ eyes in much the same way that the British used the native peoples of their extensive empire in Africa and in Asia. I have read and re-read this book several times and always enjoyed it. Indeed, I have often bought a copy only to give it away to a non-English friend for them to enjoy as well. Friends of ours who know England well but have been brought up in a different culture appreciate the book in all of its complexities. One exasperated American has been known to remark that the English male is so strange that they have to turn their pub into a children’s playground, complete with darts, skittles, shove half-penny, dominoes and a host of other games.  I have finally got around to booking my hotel and train journey for my trip to Yorkshire for my sister’s birthday in a couple of week’s time. I am contemplating what to buy for my sister but may settle on a plant which she can enjoy looking at as long it survives in her room. Fortunately, I have just avoided the bank holiday as booking a room might have been problematic otherwise.

The day before yesterday, my struggles with technology persisted until the bitter end. Although I had found a way of keeping my spare phone updated with a very reasonable Tesco Mobile SIM card, the relevant app failed to install on either my phone or my iPad. When I consulted the web, I found a video which detailed the five things you could try if you ran across this failure to install problem that told me I was not alone and many other users evidently had the same problems and the same frustration. This has all of the hallmarks of a badly written app in which this fundamental problem has never been fixed. So I tried the helpline, the number for which I just managed to come across in one of my notebooks. As is often the way, the member of staff manning the helpline had such heavily accented English that she was barely comprehensible but I think she said she could not solve the problem but would ‘escalate’ the problem and someone would call me back. Of course they never did and I expect they never will so as I have a reasonable work-around, I will not persist any more in this direction. But just before I finally come to bed and particularly if it has just turned midnight, I often consult my online banking because often deductions from my account are activated just after midnight. But my browser, which admittedly is  ancient and cannot be updated, indicated a problem accessing the bank and so this was potentially a major problem. I experimented with another browser which more-or-less worked but eventually came to a realisation of what may be the problem and a solution. I noticed that the entry from my Favourites section of the browser sent a long and complex string to the banking URL and I suspect that there is a cookie problem along the line. My suspicions were confirmed as if I typed in the bank URL directly instead of relying upon the string supplied by the browser I got straight through and my credentials worked as they should. So my solution was to save a simple i.e. not complex address in my browser which then shorn of its long and complex parameter seemed to work, So that I can now get through to my bank OK (which I do twice a day) then at least I could go to bed and sleep a little more easily but I lost some of my beauty sleep as a result of trying to fix the problem. When the internet works as it should, things are marvellous but when these problems occur, it can be a nightmare.

I learn from the news this morning that it is the day when ‘A’-levels are announced so am having to prepare myself for the usual pictures of long legged blonde ‘A’-level students leaping up and down with delight as they get the results that they wanted. It is not as televisually exciting to see pimply male students showing disappointment over not getting their desired grades but I have got used to these images over the years. It is being said that the results of ‘A’-level grades have gone up this year and I wonder whether, cynically, AI-assisted coursework components might be some of the explanation for this. I remember a cartoon from several years go when an ‘A’-level student announced to her mother ‘Congratulations! You got an ‘A’ for my last assignment’) but perhaps this is just an excess of cynicism on my part.

My son called around this morning as he often does after his keep-fit swim so we had an interesting chat and I recounted to him how I had overcome the technological difficulties of the night before. Then I went shopping as part of my normal Thursday morning routine. I treated myself to a packet of sweet and sour sauce and this proved to be a godsend because I was going to make some turkey pieces into the centrepiece of my lunch but the sweet-and-sour sauce made it a lot more interesting. I supplemented this with a baked potato and some beans, finishing off with Greek yogurt. After lunch, I wondered if I could bring Alexa (smart speaker) back into use on the lounge TV. When this lounge doubled as Meg’s bedroom I had a special Amazon ‘Echo’ device installed so that Meg could listen to some good music whilst she was drifting off to sleep but this has now been relocated back into the upstairs bedroom from whence it came. I just about remembered how to get Alexa operating on the downstairs TV but it does involve holding down a ‘Prime’ button whilst giving voice commands. Anyway, I must have remembered correctly because I got this operating again and can now remember the exact sequence of commands to activate it which I had forgotten. One of the unanticipated bonuses is that the TV displays the title of the actual track which is currently being played which is great to remind yourself of the exact title of the piece which may have slipped one’s memory.

These days, I am trying hard to have a ‘sensible’ eating and drinking habits. So I allow myself one, but only one, caffeinated tea drink as the first drink of the day. I tend to follow that up with Rooibos (Red Bush) tea or with green tea later in the day. For breakfast, I have two corn cakes with olive oil and tomato puree on one and an almond butter on the other. I am also consuming avocados on a daily basis but I buy four small ones in a pack and have one for breakfast each morning, split into two and with a little drop of ‘1000 Island’ dressing in the hole left by the stone. My main meal is always in the middle of the day and then I have a light nursery style tea at about 6.00pm and this generally takes the form of some tinned fruit and a little treat of ice cream whilst the weather is so warm, Incidentally, whilst on health-related matters, I asked my Pilates teacher if she had observed any differences in my physical shape since I have been attending over the past three months. Her view was that I am now practically in the shape that I was before I had to abandon the Pilates classes and so had made up the lost ground, as it were.

The day dawned with the prospect of a being a little cooler so it looks as though the current heatwave is gradually losing some its  power. Today I have nothing scheduled on my planning board so we shall have to see what the day will bring. Of course, I shall start off with a walk down the hill to pick up my newspaper and to have a free coffee and I hope that I might bump into someone that I know. It is actually a period that you might expect when a lot of people are holidaying and I am starring to vaguely think of some plans that I might make for September after I have made the trip up to Yorkshire in just over a fortnight’s time. The daily news is typically dire this morning with plenty to make one feel depressed both on a national and an international level so I may try a day of ‘cerebral hygiene’ in which I expose myself to precious little news today and find diversion in a good book. My friend brought with him a punnet full of plums from his garden which I most admit are absolutely delicious and although we got a handful of plums from our own plum tree, those from the Hampshire garden are so much more delicious. One of my long standing Pilates friends is in the process of selling up and moving to be a near her daughter in Hampshire so this occurrence is more and more frequent amongst my acquaintances these days. I did turn to the Huffingpost Post, though, for an interesting news story and read with a certain amount of glee how Channel 4′s anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy tore into Reform UK’s Andrea Jenkins last week over her party’s confusing policies. During a press conference, several representatives from the party blamed illegal migration for increasing violence against women and girls – although it’s well-known that a third of such abuse comes from an intimate partner. Faced with a well briefed and experienced interviewer, such politicians new on the block often crumble under pressure.  I think some politicians, particularly on the right, when they know they are going to have a hard time just refuse ever to be interviewed e.g. on Channel 4 and seek out journalists such as on the Daily Mail who they know will never present them with a serious challenge (such as presenting them with facts that shows their own prejudices are just that and are not rooted in reality) Having said that, it is pretty evident that illegal immigration is being used in a typically scapegoating way and as the probable source of all of the problems that the country does face and the so-called ‘race card’  instead of being deployed on an occasional basis is now used practically daily and some of the myths are now well embedded in some sections of the not-well-informed population. In fact, I suspect that not a day passes in which there is not an ‘illegal’ story somewhere on the front pages in a news bulletin.

This morning, I reattached a cleat to the inside wall of my bedroom window, the cleat holding the string to the blind to keep it in the ‘up’ position.  This sounds no great shakes but it more complicated than might be imagined. First the holes in the wall have to repacked with wooden splints to form a retaining plug and, over the years, I have found a match stick cut to the required length and then hammered into the wall works well, But then I have to hold the blind away with one hand as well as its draw string whilst screwing in the cleat left-handed and at a 90 degree angle. I made a good enough job of tis and then returned later with a Philips screwdriver which had a sharper point and did not just rotate in the screw hole together with a rubberised gardening glove to get my screwdriver plenty of grip and succeeded in getting the cleat really tightly against the wall where I hope it will last for years. I then turned my attention to see if I could get the YouTube video of a ‘bench’ exercise located and then made accessible on a very old iPad that I have. The idea is that I will keep this 9-10 year old iPad permanently in the bedroom on a stand so that I can view the video clip whilst following  the exercises, which take about 20 minutes. I have used this particular video clip for years and it can be difficult to locate on YouTube but I particularly like the young American instructor who is pleasant and not too demanding and seems able to gauge her instruction very carefully to her intended audience. In the past, I have always put on my Pilates jogging pants before attempting these exercises and these get me into the right frame of mind, as it were. When I thought about getting a bike, I thought this might be a recipe for eventually getting knocked off it as well as all of the gear that you need to buy so I thought that the bench exercises might give me most of the fitness gains I desire in the most efficient way.  One of the features of the video is a timer that counts down the timings of each exercise (anything from 30-60 seconds) and helps to keep you motivate to complete it and then to press onto the next. I spent a certain amount of time playing about with my spare mobile phone (my ex iPhone) into which I had put a Tesco mobile PAYG (Pay as You Go) Sim card but this proved a little awkward to do. In theory, you just use the App to download some extra credit but the app refused to play ball  even after deleting the old app and installing the new one. The app asks you to send in the number which it will then verify with a message but the message never arrives so the app fails to install. I put credit on the phone using an old web-based link on my previous computer which seems pretty reliable. So it has been rather a chewy type of day messing about with technology that seems to half work and then fail but at the end of the day I have got my exercise routines ready to play and some credit on my backup phone so cannot complain.

The evening before yesterday, I received a very pleasant surprise in that one of my close ex-University of Winchester friends is going to call in on me in the afternoon to pay a surprise visit. My friend visits a Birmingham suburb where he still has appointments with a dentist he has been attending for years and so is taking the opportunity to call in which will be a wonderful surprise. We have quite a lot of practical issues to talk over so I am looking forward to his visit. Today is the day when I generally both see my friends in Wetherspoons and also attend a Pilates class later in the day. Yesterday, I received a medical report on the X-ray I had recently had taken of my pelvis which was extraordinary for its banality. The text message received indicated that ‘there was no significant difference observable since the last X-ray’ but as this had only been taken 3-4 weeks before, I would have been amazed if any differences had been observed. Meanwhile last night there was the last of the series broadcast by Michael Moseley on the secrets of the ‘super-agers’ and the first item was the benefit to the immune system of regular cycling. This has left me vaguely wondering if there is a local cycle club in which there is a spare bike going which I could rent for a month or so and then ‘try before you buy’ but I might have a think about all of this. In the meantime, I will put the word around amongst friends and acquaintances of they have a spare bike available they could lend me for about a month to work out whether this is a mad idea or not. But I did learn one thing from the Michael Moseley programme which I found really interesting but also somewhat counter-intuitive.   One of the greatest enemies of late middle age, not to say old age, is the accumulation of fat around the midriff and some of your internal organs, known as visceral fat. This is the so-called ‘brown’ fat which is not good for you hormonally and is difficult to fix by conventional exercise. But it seems that the practice of Tai Chi is better at shifting belly fat even more so than gym exercise and so it seems the way to go. A bit of investigation reveals that there may a Tai Chi class in my local Methodist Centre. But everything is in a bit of obeyance at the moment as we are in the height of the August holiday season. But as soon as normal activities resume at the start of September, I will start to make active enquiries. In the meantime, I think that a quick search of Amazon to find an instruction book might help to get me going. The Michael Mosely series concluded with four activities – cycling, brisk walking, good Mediterranean diet with lashings of olive oil and finally Tai Chi so at least 2-3 of these are well within my grasp.

In the middle of the day, I went off to my Pilates session which I always do by car as I have already made one journey down into town and back again on foot. After our Pilates class, I made my way home and then enjoyed a lunch of mackerel on a bed of salad, complemented with some grated cheese and beetroot. This was highly appropriate for a hot day when I was disinclined to cook and then  after lunch,  I awaited the visit of my University of Winchester friend who was calling in on me. It was such a hot afternoon that we regaled ourselves with some zero alcohol lager and then had a long chat about all of the things that we wanted to catch up upon. Some of these were issues that we could talk to each frankly about both being in the situation of having lost spouses fairly recently. I then informed my friend that  my son and myself had gone through all the stages of preparing the two Enduring Power of Attorney documents which just needed some signatures before they get despatched to the Office of the Public Guardian. My friend was very interested in this as he was contemplating doing the same with his daughter and son and I explained how straightforward the whole process appeared to be and how much cheaper it was to do it for yourself online rather than going o a solicitor who would in effect charge you an arm and a leg for something that most people will be able to do for themselves. We then polished off  some rather nice ice-cream before my friend had to depart for the long journey back to Hampshire.

Thames Water seems to be on the brink of insolvency and the government have taken the step of appointing some special administrators should the company go complete ‘belly up’ Thames Water, its largest group of creditors and Ofwat, the industry regulator, have been locked in talks for months about a deal that would see its lenders injecting about £5bn of new capital and writing off roughly £12bn of value across its capital structure. The discussions are said to be progressing constructively, although they appear to rely in part on the prospect of the company being granted forbearance on hundreds of millions of pounds of regulatory fines. The root of the problem appears to be the amount of money taken out of the company in the form of dividends whereas the view of Margaret Thatcher, who instigated the policy of water privatisation, was that only the private sector and not the state could afford to invest the billions of pounds of much needed investment in the outdated infrastructure of water supply on the one hand and drains on the other. Normally, one would have thought of public ownership (nationalisation) as the only solution to a problem as complex as this but the debts are so enormous that the Treasury does not really want to know about it.  In addition, would the public be in agreement that money should be taken away from sectors such as education or the NHS in order to bail out and compensate the owners of a failed public utility? Thames Water has been teetering on the brink for years and what rankles is that it is being contemplated that they be let off the large fines that they have incurred for their misdemeanours in the past.